(Vatican Radio) May is the month of Mary, and looking to her this Wednesday, Pope Francis raised a prayer of thanksgiving for her good counsel in times of difficulty. He also invited mothers world-wide to pray for this gift from the Holy Spirit to be able to counsel their children and announced that on Thursday the Vatican Secretary of State will travel to the shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii.

Continuing his series of reflections at the General Audience on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, this week he focused on the Gift of Counsel. Emer McCarthy reports:

“We know how important it is, especially in the most delicate moments, to be able to count on the advice of wise people who love us. Now, through the gift of counsel, it is God himself, with his Spirit who enlightens our hearts, so as to help us understand the proper way to speak and behave and the path to follow. But how does this work? From the moment we welcome and host Him in our hearts, the Holy Spirit immediately begins to make us sensitive to His voice and to direct our thoughts, our feelings and our intentions according to God’s heart. At the same time, He increasingly brings us to turn our inward gaze upon Jesus as a model of how to act and relate with God the Father and our brothers and sisters. Counsel, then, is the gift by which the Holy Spirit makes our conscience capable of making a concrete choice in communion with God, according to the logic of Jesus and of his Gospel. In this way, the Spirit helps us grow inwardly, helps us grow positively, helps us grow in communion and helps us to avoid being at the mercy of selfishness and our own way of seeing things. This is how the Spirit helps us grow and also live in communion.”

2014-05-08 13:41:21 Pope Francis: The Church should bestow the grace of God not bureaucratic obstacles

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis says those in the Church who are called to administer the sacraments must leave room for the grace of God and not place bureaucratic obstacles in the way. This was one of the key points stressed by the Pope in his homily on Thursday at the Santa Marta residence.Listen to this report by Susy Hodges: RealAudioMP3

Pope Francis reflected on the three elements necessary for an effective evangelization, saying it requires docility, dialogue with people and trusting in the grace of God which is more important than bureaucracy. For the first element, he pointed to Philip the apostle as an example of docility.

“He, Philip, he obeys, he’s docile and accepts the calling from the Lord. Certainly he left behind many things that he ought to have done, because the Apostles in that period were very busy evangelizing. He leaves everything and sets off. And this makes us see that without this docility or meekness before the voice of God nobody can evangelize, nobody can announce Jesus Christ: at the very most he will be announcing himself. It’s God who calls us, it’s God who starts Philip on that road. And Philip goes forth. He’s docile.”

2014-05-08 13:41:34Pope Francis to Armenian Catholicos: blood of martyrs is seed of unity

Vatican Radio) Pope Francis received the Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, on Thursday at the Vatican. The Catholicos is in Rome on a three-day visit that concludes on May 9. In remarks prepared for the occasion, Pope Francis recalled Pope St. John Paul II’s 2001 visit to Armenia, and the many other visits the Catholicos has made to Rome and to the Popes in the Vatican, especially his 2008 visit to Pope Benedict XVI and his participation in the inauguration of Pope Francis’ own pontificate.

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican on Thursday made an urgent appeal for the release of over 200 Nigerian schoolgirls who were kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram on the night of April 14th. Responding to journalists’ questions, the head of the Holy See Press Office, Fr Federico Lombardi noted that the abduction of so many young girls is just the latest episode of “other horrible forms of violence” for which the militant Islamic group has become known in Nigeria.

“The denial of any kind of respect for life and for the dignity of the human person, even the most innocent, vulnerable and defenseless,” Fr Lombardi said, “calls for the strongest condemnation, arouses the most heartfelt feelings of compassion for the victims and instills a sense of horror for the physical and spiritual suffering and the incredible humiliation they have suffered.”

(Vatican Radio) Saints are not heroes, but are sinners who follow Jesus along the path of humility and of the Cross and thus allow themselves to be sanctified by Him – because no one is able to sanctify himself. This was the message of Pope Francis in his homily at daily Mass on Friday at the Casa Santa Marta.

Beginning with the first Reading, which tells the story of the conversion of Paul from an enemy of the Church to a saint, Pope Francis explained what is meant when we say “the Church is holy”:

“But how can she be holy if we are all within [her]? We are all sinners here. Yet the Church is holy! We are sinners, but she is holy. She is the spouse of Jesus Christ, and He loves her, He sanctifies her, He sanctifies her every day with His Eucharistic sacrifice, because He loves her so much. And we are sinners, but in a holy Church. And we too are sanctified with this belonging to the Church: we are children of Church, and Mother Church sanctifies us, with her love, with the Sacraments of her Spouse.”

2014-05-09 11:31:56 Pope: Church in Ethiopia, Eritrea a witness to unity

Vatican Radio) The Church in Ethiopia Eritrea, is a unique example of “witness to the unity of the People of God”, which though from different countries and different rites, “each with its own particular richness”, share the same mission of service of Christ and his Church.

This was the focus of Pope Francis address to the bishops from Ethiopia and Eritrea, on their Ad Limina pilgrimage to the Threshold of the Apostles.

Below please find the full text of Pope Francis’ address to the bishops

(Vatican Radio) “There is so much need of priests, consecrated persons and lay faithful who, gripped by the love of Christ, are set ablaze with passion for the Kingdom of God and willing to put themselves on the path of evangelization”, said Pope Francis Friday morning as he received members of the Pontifical Missions Society in audience at the end of their annual assembly. Listen: RealAudioMP3

He noted: “In this time of great social change, evangelization requires a thoroughly outgoing missionary Church, capable of discernment in order to engage with different cultures and visions of man . For a changing world we need a Church renewed and transformed by contemplation and personal contact with Christ, by the power of the Spirit”.

The Pontifical Mission Societies include the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Society of St. Peter the Apostle, the Holy Childhood Association and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious. The Pope specifically asks the Pontifical Mission Societies to help bring the messages of Christ to the world, especially in countries where Christianity is new, young or poor. The societies care for and support the younger churches until they are able to be self-sufficient.

Below please find a Vatican Radio translation of the Holy Father’s speech to the Pontifical Mission Societies:

2014-05-09 11:46:16 Pope to UN: Resist the economy of exclusion, serve the poor

(Vatican Radio ) Pope Francis met with executives from the United Nations Agencies, Funds and Programmes on Friday, led by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Emer McCarthy reports: RealAudioMP3

Speaking to the men and women who manage the UN’s vast network of humanitarian offices, he urged them to challenge “all forms of injustice” and resist the “economy of exclusion”, the “throwaway culture” and the “culture of death” which nowadays – he said – “sadly risk becoming passively accepted”.

Reflecting on the UN’s target for Future Sustainable Development Goals, he questioned whether in today’s world, a spirit of solidarity and sharing guide all our thoughts and actions:

“Future Sustainable Development Goals must therefore be formulated and carried out with generosity and courage, so that they can have a real impact on the structural causes of poverty and hunger, attain more substantial results in protecting the environment, ensure dignified and productive labor for all, and provide appropriate protection for the family, which is an essential element in sustainable human and social development”.

The Pope also pointed the executives to the Gospel story of Zacchaeus the Tax collector, as an example of how it’s never too late to correct injustice

“Today, in concrete terms, an awareness of the dignity of each of our brothers and sisters whose life is sacred and inviolable from conception to natural death must lead us to share with complete freedom the goods which God’s providence has placed in our hands, material goods but also intellectual and spiritual ones, and to give back generously and lavishly whatever we may have earlier unjustly refused to others”.

Below please find the full text of Pope Francis’ address to the UN delegation

Pope Francis sends greetings to participants in National March for Life Canadian Catholic News May 8, 2014

OTTAWA - Pope Francis sent greetings to the thousands of pro-life marchers who participated in the National March for Life here May 8.

Quebec's Cardinal Gerald Cyprien Lacroix surprised the crowd, estimated at 23,000, when he told them about the papal message.

“Today I have something very special for you," said Lacroix. "When Pope Francis was made aware of our march here in Ottawa he decided to send us a message.”

Lacroix then read the message in English and French.

“His Holiness Pope Francis is pleased to greet everyone taking part in the 17th National March for Life in Ottawa, and he assures them of his spiritual closeness as they give witness to the God-given dignity, beauty and value of human life,” said the message signed by the Holy See’s Secretary of State Pietro Parolin. “He prays that this event foster greater respect for the inviolable right to life of each person from conception to natural death and support the efforts of all who labour to ensure that this fundamental human right receives adequate legal protection.

“To the organizers and participants, and in particular to those who aid women in crisis pregnancies and their children, the Holy Father cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of joy and peace in the risen Lord,” Lacroix read.

The Pope had sent a similar message to the National March for Life in Washington, D.C. in January and to the Italian March for Life May 4 in Rome.

The Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has rebuked the organisation that represents most American nuns for honouring a sister whose work it deems “seriously inadequate” and for promoting ideas “opposed to Christian revelation”.In a statement to the US-based Catholic News Service, LCWR officials said Cardinal Müller’s “remarks were meant to set a context for the discussion that followed. The actual interaction with Cardinal Müller and his staff was an experience of dialogue that was respectful and engaging”.

But two days later the nuns issued a more critical communiqué regretting the state of relations between the CDF and the LCWR, saying they did not recognise the view of them the CDF depicted in the doctrinal assessment.

"During the meeting it became evident that despite maximum efforts through the years, communication has broken down and as a result, mistrust has developed. What created an opening toward dialogue in this meeting was hearing first-hand the way the CDF perceives LCWR. We do not recognise ourselves in the doctrinal assessment of the conference and realise that, despite that fact, our attempts to clarify misperceptions have led to deeper misunderstandings."

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican announced Saturday that Pope Francis has signed a decree confirming that a miracle attributed to Pope Paul VI is authentic and that the former pope will be beatified at the Vatican on Oct. 19.

In a statement, the Vatican said that, in the afternoon of May 9, the Pope received in private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and "authorized the congregation to promulgate" a decree regarding "the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Paul VI (Giovanni Battista Montini)."

It added that, at the same audience, the Holy Father "authorized the congregation to communicate that the rite of beatification of the Venerable Servant of God Paul VI will take place at the Vatican Oct. 19, 2014."

Speaking to the Register May 9, the postulator of Paul VI’s cause for beatification, Redemptorist Father Antonio Marrazzo, said cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints had verified all requirements concerning the miracle “with great unanimity,” and, “now, we’re in the last room, waiting for the voice of the Holy Father to promulgate a decree on the miracle.”

According to Vatican Insider, the cardinals and bishops came to a decision on May 6.

The attributed miracle involves an unborn child in the 1990s in California, who was found to have a serious health problem that posed a high risk of brain damage. The child’s bladder was damaged, and doctors reported ascites (the presence of liquid in the abdomen) and anhydramnios (absence of fluid in the amniotic sac). Physicians advised that the child be aborted, but the mother entrusted her pregnancy to the intercession of Pope Paul VI, who succeeded St. John XXIII on June 21, 1963, and served until his death on Aug. 6, 1978.

Abortion was offered as an option, but the mother reportedly refused, instead taking advice from a nun who was a friend of the family and had met Paul VI. She then prayed for Paul VI’s intercession using a fragment of the pope’s vestments that the nun had given her.

Ten weeks later, the results of the medical tests showed a substantial improvement in the child’s health, and he was born by Caesarean section in the 39th week of pregnancy. He is now a healthy adolescent and considered to be completely healed.

Not only has a Vatican medical commission ruled that the healing is medically inexplicable, but the consulting theologians for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints have also agreed that the healing was a “supernatural intervention,” according to Father Marrazzo.Read more...

(Vatican Radio) On Saturday, hundreds of thousands school children, along with their teachers and families, filled St. Peter’s Square and Via della Conciliazione to take part in a festive encounter with Pope Francis.

The meeting was part of a national campaign organized by the Italian Bishops Conference in support of schools, called “La Chiesa per la scuola” or The Church for Schools.

The aim of the event is to give witness to the passion for education in Italy, as well as the challenges that impact schools in the country.

2014-05-10 12:19:08 Pope to Secular Institutes: You are revolutionary!

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has told the men and women of Italy’s Secular Institutes that their establishment was a revolutionary and courageous act that revealed how his predecessor Pius XII knew how to read the signs of the times.

Handing his prepared text to the 200 consecrated lay men and women present, the Pope preferred to speak to them from the heart. He began by describing Pius XII’ apostolic constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia as an act of courage that the Church of the time needed. It institutionalized the reality of communities of lay consecrated men and women, and since then – the Pope said – “you have done great good for the Church, with great courage because we need courage to live in this world”.

“Many of you – he noted – life alone or in community, you come and go. You live everyday life in the world, but at the same time custody this contemplative dimension; contemplation of the Lord and the world; the reality and beauty of the world; the great sins of society, its deviations, all of these things…”

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis met the participants of international conference of the Centesimus Annus—Pro Pontifice foundation, which dedicated the last few days to the study and discuss the role of solidarity in business decisions.

The pope noted how solidarity was a prominent theme in the social teaching of St John Paul II and developed further by Pope Benedict XVI.

In discussing the contemporary situation, the Holy Father observed “the word “solidarity” has become inconvenient, even troublesome. The crisis of these years, which has profound ethical causes, has increased this “allergy” to words like solidarity, equal distribution of goods, the priority of work, and the reason is that one cannot—or does not want—to truly study in what way these ethical values can become concrete economic values, that is create virtuous dynamics of production, in work, in commerce, and in finance.”

The pope then reminded the participants the importance of the Church as the source of strength to carry out this mission. “The Christian community,” the pope said, “is the place in which the entrepreneur, but also the politician, the professional, the union worker, draws the strength to nourish their commitments and encounters with their brothers. This is indispensable, because the work situation at times becomes dry, hostile and inhuman. The crisis putts the hope of the entrepreneur to a difficult test. One must not leave only those who are most in difficulty.”

The pope finished encouraging the laity to carry out this mission in the world. He said, “ you can give effective testimony in your field, because you do not bring only words and discourses, but you bring the experience of persons and ventures that seek to realize concretely Christian ethical principles in the contemporary situation of the world of work.”

The pope left them, asking for the intercession of Our Lady of Good Counsel and imparted his blessing.

Listen to the report by Andrew Summerson: RealAudioMP3 Read below the full text of Pope Francis' message:

(Vatican Radio) On the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, Pope Francis ordained thirteen new priests at Mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica.

The Mass was concelebrated by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, Agostino Vallini; Archbishop Filippo Iannone, Vicegerent of Rome; and the auxiliary bishops of Rome; along with the rectors of the seminaries and the pastors of the newly ordained.

Eleven of the new priests were ordained for the diocese of Rome. Pope Francis, wanting to meet personally the men he would be ordaining, received the eleven deacons of the Diocese of Rome on April 25, at the Casa Santa Marta.

Two other men, a religious of the Order of Discalced Augustinians from Pakistan and a Vietnamese seminarian from the Diocese of Vinh, were also ordained.

In his homily, based on the homily recommended in the Pontifical, Pope Francis spoke about the vocation to the sacramental priesthood. Those who are ordained, he said, “are configured to Christ the high and eternal priest, are consecrated as true priests of the New Testament” so that they become “preachers of the Gospel, and shepherds of the People of God, and will preside over the liturgical actions, especially in the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Lord.”

(Vatican Radio) “Bother your pastors, disturb your pastors, all of us pastors, so that we will give you the milk of grace, of doctrine, and of guidance.” Departing from his prepared remarks, Pope Francis on Sunday called on the faithful knock at the doors of their pastors “and on their hearts,” saying it would help Bishops and priests be good pastors.

The Holy Father made his remarks to the pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter’s Square for the weekly Regina Caeli prayer. His remarks focused on the image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, taken from the day’s Gospel reading. Many people are proposed to us as shepherds or pastors for our daily lives, he said. “But only the risen Christ is the true Shepherd, who gives us life in abundance.” Jesus not only guides us, but accompanies us on our journey “He walks with us.” Pope Francis called on us to “listen with open minds and hearts to His Word, in order to feed our faith, illuminate our consciences” and allow us “to follow the teachings of the Gospel.”Concluding his reflections, Pope Francis recalled the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, commemorated on Sunday. Every vocation, he said, “always requires an exodus from oneself in order to centre one’s life on Christ and on His Gospel.” But the call of the Lord to a religious vocation is always in danger of being stifled by other voices and other calls. And so, the Pope said, we should pray for young people that they might hear and respond to the voice of the Lord calling them.

Following the recitation of the Regina Caeli, Pope Francis greeted pilgrims from Italy and around the world. He concluded his greetings with a special thought for mothers: “Today I invite you to dedicate a good memory and a prayer for all mothers,” he said, before leading the faithful in prayer “for our mothers and for all mothers.”Listen to Christopher Wells' report: RealAudioMP3

Below, please find the full text of Pope Francis' remarks at the Regina Caeli on Sunday:

Just two weeks before Pope Francis's scheduled visit, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal accuses state of not doing enough to bring ultra-nationalist perpetrators to justice.

The most senior Catholic cleric in Israel, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Fouad Twal, described “price-tag” attacks as acts of “terror” on Sunday, and said that the recent wave of suspected ultra-nationalist Jewish violence is poisoning the atmosphere in Israel ahead of Pope Francis’s visit on May 25.

“This wave of extremist actions of terror is surely of grave concern to all reasonable persons,” said Twal in Haifa before the annual Our Lady of Mount Carmel procession.

(Vatican Radio) "Who are we to close the doors " to the Holy Spirit? This was the question that Pope Francis repeated this morning during his homily at Mass at Casa Santa Marta, a homily dedicated to the conversion of the first pagans to Christianity. The Holy Spirit, he reiterated, is what makes the Church to go "beyond the limits, go ever forward."

The Spirit blows where it wills, but one of the most common temptations of those who have faith is to bar its path and drive it in one direction or another. A temptation that was not alien even in the early days of the Church, as the experience of Simon Peter in today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles shows. A community of pagans welcomes the announcement of the Gospel and Peter is an eyewitness to the descent of the Holy Spirit on them. First hesitates to make contact with what he had always considered "unclean" and then he suffers harsh criticism from the Christians of Jerusalem, shocked by the fact that their leader had eaten with the "uncircumcised" and had even baptized them. A moment of internal crisis that Pope Francis recalls with a hint of irony :

"That was unthinkable. If – for example - tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here... Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them... And one says, 'But I want to be baptized!' What would happen?"

Peter understands his error when a vision enlightens him to a fundamental truth: that which has been purified by God cannot be called "profane" by anyone. And in narrating these facts to the crowd that criticized him, the Apostle calms them all with this statement: "If then God gave them the same gift He gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?"

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Monday met with the rectors and students of the Pontifical Universities and Colleges in Rome. In his opening remarks, the Holy Father noted the many students from the Middle East and from Ukraine. "I want to tell you that I am very close to you in this time of suffering: indeed, very close; and in prayer,” he said. The encounter continued in an informal manner, with Pope Francis responding “off-the-cuff” to questions from the assembled students, covering a number of topics, including balancing the academic life with the spiritual life, the style of leadership necessary for a priest, and the New Evangelization.

First of all, he warned the students against academism, saying it was “dangerous” when student returns from studying in Rome not as “a father”, but as “doctor.”

“I would not understand a priest a priest who is getting a degree here, in Rome, but does not have a community life: This is wrong,” said Pope Francis. “Or does not take care of his spiritual life – daily Mass, daily prayer, lectio divina, personal prayer with the Lord – or the apostolic life.”

He said that academic “purism” is bad, and that if you see only the academic side of things, “there is a danger of slipping into ideology.

(Vatican Radio) We cannot understand the things of God only with our heads, we need to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit too. This was Pope Francis’ message at morning Mass Tuesday at Casa Santa Marta. The Pope also said that faith is a gift of God which we cannot receive if we live our lives “detached” from His people, the Church.

As usual, the Pope reflected on the readings offered by the liturgy of the day, which show us "two groups of people". In the First Reading, "there are those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose" following Stephen’s martyrdom. "They were dispersed with the seed of the Gospel - the Pope said – and they carried it everywhere". At first, they only spoke to the Jews. Then , "almost naturally, some of them" who had come to Antioch, "began to speak to the Greeks". And so, slowly, "they opened the doors to the Greeks, to the pagans”. Once the news arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas was sent to Antioch "to carry out an inspection". He noticed that everyone “was happy" because " a large number of people was added to the Lord".